How can I make the SourcePath property of a file in a Visual Studio Setup and Deployment project (Windows Installer) relative rather than absolute?

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+1 Q:

How can I make the SourcePath property of a file in a Visual Studio Setup and Deployment project (Windows Installer) relative rather than absolute?

I've got a relatively simple project that is under source control (svn), and I wanted to create an installer. I know that I could (should) use WiX, but as I'm new to creating installers I thought it'd be easier to just use the built-in Visual Studio (2010) Setup and Deployment Wizard.

Unfortunately, it seems that files including external (non-project maintained) documentation, configuration files, and "Content" files are added with absolute paths. This, of course, is suboptimal. I searched the web, but found only the same question, without an answer. Another stackoverflow user seems to have asked a similar question, but the only answer, which suggests ClickOnce, seems off-base (I'd like to have an MSI that I distribute not a web-based installation).

Does anyone know how (or whether) this can be fixed?

+1 A:

It might be easier now but when you start bumping into the limitations of the tool it's going to get real hard. Let's not even talk about the bad practices it will encourage which could end up being real hard for the poor end user installing your product. You've got Visual Studio 2010 so InstallShield LE ( free ) would be a better choice.

Otherwise, to answer your question, it will only use absolute paths if it can't caculate a relative path. ( for example c:\foo\foo.vdproj consuming d:\foo.txt consuming c:\test\foo.txt should automatically be ....\test\foo.txt )

BTW, if you decide to check out WiX and want some "easy" check out my IsWiX project on CodePlex. I'm trying to bridge the feature gap between InstallShield and WiX.

Christopher Painter 2010-07-30 22:00:20

All the files are on the same drive, within a few branches of a (great-)grandparent directory (i.e., 2x to 3x parent directory). And yet I still get absolute paths for relative paths that should be easy to calculate (e.g., project c:\solution\project_a\project_a.vdproj with added file c:\solution\project_b\ReadMe.txt).

Michael Repucci 2010-08-02 16:22:42

Sorry, I've never observed that b ehavior. I've always seen it behave as I described above. Either way, I wouldn't touch VDPROJ with a 100' pole. Life is too short.

Christopher Painter 2010-08-02 18:02:20

I think the confusion here is that it uses the relative path (check out the proj file) and displays the absolute path.

tzerb 2010-10-19 16:53:14

Hey, Michael, did you solve your problem ? I have exactly the same question as yours. I need your help!

nik 2010-10-05 07:20:43

No, I didn't solve that problem. I decided to invest the effort in WiX instead. I think it was worthwhile, and I'd recommend you do the same. Even though I'm still having minor troubles with WiX, these new issues would have been insurmountable with the Visual Studio Setup and Deployment.BTW, your "answer" would be better as a comment or personal message.

Michael Repucci 2010-10-07 16:02:14

ansaurus

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How can I make the SourcePath property of a file in a Visual Studio Setup and Deployment project (Windows Installer) relative rather than absolute?

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